Alexis Rinere – Staff Writer 

arr5887@psu.edu

On February 14, 2018, Nikolas Cruz killed 14 students and 3 staff members in a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and wounded 14 others. Cruz was arrested on the day of the shooting and attended his arraignment hearing the next day. In March 2018, prosecutors requested the death penalty for the shooter. The Cruz trial was postponed in 2020 due to COVID and his lawyers agreed to plead guilty in return for a life sentence, but the prosecution decided to pursue the death penalty. On October 20, 2021, Cruz pleaded guilty. His trial date was then set for April 4, 2022. In April 2022, the judge ruled that the jury was granted permission to tour the school where Cruz had killed 17 people. On July 6, 2022, the sentencing trial began and on August 4, 2022, the jury toured the high school. On October 13, 2022, the jury declared that they recommend a life sentence without parole for Nikolas Cruz. 

While this decision brought many people and families anger and disbelief, it is not always right to assume that the death penalty will bring relief to families. A father of one of the victims spoke out saying that to believe capital punishment will help victims heal is not true. The trial was a long, drawn-out, and painful process. It brought up many feelings and created more attention for Cruz that these families and victims did not want to see or relive. The father said “The person who gets remembered around mass killings tends to be the shooter. The names of the victims go by the wayside.” Another father said that the death penalty was not enough for him. He said the pain and suffering that his daughter went through before she was killed is something that Cruz will never experience, with or without the death penalty. He said that he now has to deal with the fact that the man who killed his daughter is now able to have a hobby, a hot shower, eat three meals a day, and continue living their life. 

A juror said that the decision to vote for the death penalty or not was based on personal morals. While this juror believed that because Cruz is mentally ill, he should not be sentenced to death. Another said that they already had their mind made up to vote for life before the trial had even begun. 

The decision to spare Cruz from capital punishment has affected everyone differently, whether they supported this choice or not. No matter what anyone supports it is apparent that our justice system is broken. No sentence will ever heal the victims of this, or any, tragic crime.